Category Archives: Podcast

How Talent Technology Enables Employee Engagement [Podcast]

Talent management technology has come a long way in recent years. I can still remember seeing a demo for a technology solution back in 2014 and the salesperson was so proud of the fact that I could copy and paste data into the system. By the way:

  • It wasn’t searchable.
  • You couldn’t run reports.
  • You couldn’t export anything.

There was no way to actually USE the data in there, but I could put it in if I wanted. Sigh.

Anyway, today I am sharing a really fun podcast interview with you, featuring a recent conversation with Carsten Busch, CEO of the Talent Management Business Unit, and Laura Fuller, Country Sales Manager US for Lumesse. In the conversation we not only talked about how technology has become incredibly user friendly and more employee-focused, but about some of the age-old talent questions that companies face every day, such as why managers are willing to hire an external candidate even when there are perfectly qualified internal candidates available to take the job. Carsten’s answer to the question was phenomenal and I was taking notes because it will be my new default answer to that common issue.

Additionally, Carsten and Laura talk about the shift in technology from the static, administrative-focused versions mentioned above to the talent-focused systems that Lumesse and other companies are developing today.

Also, at the tail end I mention how you can get one of my upcoming pieces of research entirely for free by signing up here for a webinar I’m doing with the team at Lumesse. Here’s the gist of what the webinar will be about:

The June edition of HR Magazine has a feature that focused on how some companies like Gap and Siemens are trying to create development opportunities that connect candidates and employees to the firms for a long period of time. The double benefit of this kind of development is that if businesses can drive retention, then they get the value of a more productive workforce for a longer period of time. This is the incredible value of talent mobility, and that’s the focus of the webinar and this upcoming piece of research.

I hope you’ll join us for that session, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the podcast as well. It was a really fun conversation.

University of Phoenix Research: Your Employees Aren’t Innovative Enough [Podcast]

Note: If you’re looking for a good app to access We’re Only Human and other podcasts, I personally use Stitcher on my Android device. 

Did you know that your employees aren’t innovative or creative enough?

That’s the latest from a research study performed by University of Phoenix on workplace innovation. In an interesting mix of data, the organization asked employees to identify whether their employers were innovative or not, and hiring managers were asked to identify the level of innovation exhibited by employees. The results were intriguing, and I covered some of the key topics of the research in a recent podcast interview with Ruth Veloria, Executive Dean of the School of Business at University of Phoenix.  Continue reading →

Sourcing: How to Find Great Talent on Purpose [Podcast]

[Email subscribers click through to listen to the episode]

Sourcing isn’t a new activity in the talent acquisition world. There have always been hard to fill jobs, but we’re seeing more of this kind of issue than ever before. In fact, a recent CareerBuilder study puts the cost of open positions at nearly $800,000 annually, tallying up costs that ultimately hurt business performance. Organizational leaders say these are the top problems caused by jobs they can’t fill:

  • Productivity loss: 45 percent
  • Higher employee turnover: 40 percent
  • Lower morale: 39 percent
  • Lower quality work: 37 percent
  • Inability to grow business: 29 percent
  • Revenue loss: 26 percent

In addition, our Lighthouse Research study of talent acquisition priorities pegs sourcing as a top area that business leaders plan to focus on in the coming year (just 1% behind onboarding, which was the highest priority).

In this episode of We’re Only Human, host Ben Eubanks is joined by the amazing Madeline Laurano, co-founder of Aptitude Research and co-host of Research on the Rocks, another HR Happy Hour network show. She and Ben discuss some of the key aspects of sourcing, such as employment branding, recruitment marketing, and technology’s role in the process. Madeline shares some great insights in this episode, and she stumps me at the end with a question that shouldn’t have been that hard to answer!

In addition, they examine the impact of AI, machines, and algorithms on the sourcing world, breaking down some of the hype and illuminating an amazing competition that pits recruiters against robots to see who is the best at sourcing great candidates. Not to spoil the surprise, but the real story here exemplifies that to get the best results, we need humans and machines working together. Get all this and more in the latest episode of We’re Only Human on the HR Happy Hour podcast network.

*Please note, if you like the show topic and want more in-depth discussion of sourcing and recruiting in a future episode, please feel free to comment below or email me!

Check out our other episodes in the We’re Only Human podcast archive.

Creating a Shared Culture of Learning with Books [Podcast]

Books. They’ve been around pretty much forever, and that familiarity is one reason they are not as appreciated as some other learning tools. But don’t be fooled–there’s more than meets the eye. It’s been said that reading one hour a day will make someone an international expert in their field in 5-7 years. While that exact figure may be up for debate, it’s clear that reading is a powerful activity for self-development.

In this episode of We’re Only Human, I interview Zach Rubin, cofounder of PBC Guru, a company that designs and delivers book club experiences for organizations looking to create a culture of shared learning. The discussion covers what books companies most often request, how to use books for supporting social learning, and a special free offer for We’re Only Human listeners.

Whether you’re a book nerd like me or not, this show is going to demonstrate that this fundamentally human activity, reading, has more value than you would have imagined.

Special Offer: PBC Guru is offering to implement and manage a virtual book club with your company completely free for six months. Just visit http://pbc.guru and fill out the contact form mentioning you heard about them on the “We’re Only Human” podcast.

Listen in the embedded player above or click here to listen on the hosted site.

What do you think about book clubs? Do they hold value at work? Why or why not?

8 Powerful Ways to Create a Culture of Innovation [Podcast]

Innovation is often discussed as an activity available only to a select few people or companies. but it is an incredibly powerful tool for companies, especially when we seek ways to use our HR influence to drive a culture of innovation.

[Click here to listen to “8 Ways HR Can Drive Enterprise Innovation“]

In this episode of the We’re Only Human podcast, we point out 8 key ways that HR leaders can create, reinforce, and drive innovative behaviors in the business. In addition, we cover two common ways that companies kill motivation and innovation with their human resources practices. Continue reading →

What Female CEOs Can Teach Us About Growth and Success [Podcast]

The HR profession is mostly women (look around you at any event and you’ll see). Yet when we look at the representation of females in the C-suite, whether in HR or in general, the blend is more evenly mixed or even weighted towards men. Why?

were-only-human-logoThe 2016 HR Technology Conference had a new feature: the Women in HR Tech Summit. The event was a success by all measures, but one person heard about the summit and started to wonder, what do female executives in HR technology do differently? What makes them successful? What lessons can we translate to the HR community at large, helping women to achieve greater success in their roles as executives, HR leaders, and business professionals?

In episode 6 of We’re Only Human, I interviewed Lynn Miller, a researcher exploring the interesting world of female founders and CEOs in HR Technology. She talks about what separates this group from their male counterparts and also explains the value they can bring in terms of customer satisfaction and more. (Subscribers, click through to listen to the embedded show below.)

For more information about Lynn’s research, check out her LinkedIn series .

To check out other episodes of We’re Only Human or learn more about what I’m up to, check out the Podcast page.

Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Why do you think this mix of females diminishes at higher levels of responsibility? What can we do to fix it, if it should be fixed? What would you want to know from these CEOs and high achievers if you had a chance to talk with them one-on-one?

Hiring at the Push of a Button: An Interview with Wonolo Cofounder [Podcast]

were-only-human-logoThe idea of a “gig” isn’t anything new, but the concept of using gig workers as an alternative source of talent certainly is. More companies are starting to realize that getting a job done doesn’t always have to mean creating a requisition, posting a job, interviewing candidates, and making an offer. In the case of some new applications on the market, companies can bring talent to their front door at the veritable push of a button. Yes, really.

In episode 5 of We’re Only Human, host Ben Eubanks interviews AJ Brustein, cofounder and COO of Wonolo, an on-demand hiring application. Ben and AJ discuss Wonolo’s beginnings as a startup within Coca Cola to solve a specific talent challenge and how it spun off into its own brand. In addition, they talk about how companies can make use of gigs to not only meet company objectives, but to help meet the needs of workers as well. It’s a fascinating conversation and one that will challenge your assumptions about the on demand workers you meet on a daily basis.For more information about Wonolo, check out http://www.wonolo.com

If the gig economy topic interests you, be sure to check out my previous post on the topic about how to use the gig economy to find talent.

Subscribers click through to stream the show below or click here to visit the podcast site. As always, if you subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app, you’ll be notified of the new shows and never miss an episode. 

To check out other episodes of We’re Only Human or learn more about what Ben’s up to, check out the podcast or the Where I’ll Be page.